


Misunderstandings

by whatidontunderstand



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Bruises, Doombots, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Hurt Tony Stark, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Protective Jarvis (Iron Man movies)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-10
Updated: 2017-09-10
Packaged: 2018-12-26 00:34:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12047607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whatidontunderstand/pseuds/whatidontunderstand
Summary: Tony knows he shouldn’t have done it. But he did it anyway. There were civilians in danger and somehow hanging around Captain America long enough caused him to put their safety ahead of his own. No one was hurt, except him, but no one had to know about that. Steve had chewed him out for ignoring orders during the debrief, yelling at him while the rest of the team had just looked on.They had just gotten back from a mission: Doctor Doom had invented a new type of Doombot that he had released into Central Park and the Avengers had been asked to help take them out. During the mission, Tony had ignored multiple direct orders which resulted in Thor having to extract Hawkeye where Tony didn’t. It had all worked out in the end but that didn’t seem to matter.





	Misunderstandings

Tony knows he shouldn’t have done it. But he did it anyway. There were civilians in danger and somehow hanging around Captain America long enough caused him to put their safety ahead of his own. No one was hurt, except him, but no one had to know about that. Steve had chewed him out for ignoring orders during the debrief, yelling at him while the rest of the team had just looked on. 

They had just gotten back from a mission: Doctor Doom had invented a new type of Doombot that he had released into Central Park and the Avengers had been asked to help take them out. During the mission, Tony had ignored multiple direct orders which resulted in Thor having to extract Hawkeye where Tony didn’t. It had all worked out in the end but that didn’t seem to matter.

“I have had it up to here with your one-man army shtick, Tony! When you work with this team you need to obey orders. Otherwise we get Clint stranded up somewhere with no extraction.” Steve folded his arms in front of his chest, a mix of disappointment and anger on his face.

“I don’t see what the big deal is. No one got hurt, Birdman got down, mission successful.” Tony could see where Steve was coming from, he just didn’t want Steve to know that. He had just needed to help some civilians. He got up as if to leave.

“I’m done. I can’t deal with you right now,” Steve sighed, exhaustion clouding his features. “We’ll talk about this tomorrow when everyone has calmed down a bit. Everyone needs some sleep.”

 

Back at the tower, Tony sat in his workshop, glass of whiskey in hand. He had tried the sober thing but it never stuck, he kept the whiskey around for situations like these. An indeterminate amount of time passed until Jarvis announced Steve was requesting entry into the workshop.

“Deny entry, Jarvis.” Tony didn’t move. He didn’t even know if he could move, all his muscles had seized up. Pretty much his whole body was bruised and tensed up at this point. His was mind going over everything little thing he had done wrong, everything that had been pointed out by Steve.

“Sir, he is attempting to use his override code.”

“Deny entry. Lockdown the workshop. No one comes in, not until I say so.”

“Sir,” Jarvis sounded very apprehensive for an AI.

“Do it, Jarvis,” Tony ordered. He wondered, not for the first time, why he had made such an adaptable AI, that could respond with emotion.

“Done, Sir.”

“Thank you, Jarvis.”

Dum-E rolled over, holding a coffee cup for Tony. It was filled with motor oil. Dum-E beeped anxiously when Tony didn’t immediately take it or tell him off. He smiled when he saw it was distinctly not coffee and didn’t even reprimand Dum-E because the bot chirped so happily when he took it.

More time passed. Jarvis had signalled in the new day a while ago, stating the time, date and weather. It was 7am and Tony still hadn’t moved. The bottle of whiskey still had more than half left. He kept thinking about the mission and all his mistakes. In recent years, since he had joined the Avengers, putting himself in the path of danger to save civilians had become second nature to Tony. Usually he didn’t have to disobey a direct order and usually he didn’t get hurt this bad. Usually he didn’t get everything he had done wrong pointed out by Steve.

“…Sir… Sir, you need to eat. You haven’t had anything to eat in approximately 18 hours.” Jarvis had been trying to get Tony’s attention for a while.

It took Tony far too long to gather the energy to move to grab an energy bar from the drawer beside him. After eating, he slowly pulled himself up and moved toward the workshop door.

“Jarvis, get me up to the penthouse without anyone knowing.” He didn’t want to see anyone, not when he felt like this. In another couple of days, he should be healed enough to make some appearances around the tower.

“Of course, Sir.”

In the penthouse, Tony dragged himself into the bathroom. He couldn’t even stand in the shower, sitting down on a small ledge, letting the water drain over him, washing the fight off him. Jarvis shut off the water after half an hour. 

“Thanks, J.” He avoided looking in the mirror while he dried himself, not wanting to see the reminders of the fight as he wrapped the towel around his waist. 

Steve was sitting in his armchair when Tony came out of the bathroom. Tony wasn’t even surprised that he was there, Jarvis had obviously sold him out. Ignoring Steve, he grabbed some clothes to put on.

“You didn’t come to the debrief.” Also- “What are all those bruises from?”

“My presence wasn’t necessary.” Also- “Don’t worry about it.”

Tony continued pulling on his clothes, slowly so as not to aggravate anything. Crawling into bed was the best course of action right then and he did it even with Steve still there.

“We watched the footage from the fight at the debrief today. Why didn’t you tell us there were civilians that you were helping?” 

Tony said nothing.  
“I shouldn’t have yelled at you. You didn’t deserve it. I didn’t even think there might have been other circumstances for you to disobey my orders. You didn’t even tell us when you got hurt.”

Tony looked up at Steve. “It wasn’t bad. I didn’t want to bother anyone.”

Steve looked like he wanted to protest but thought better of it. “Do you need medical to look over any of the injuries?”

“No, I’m fine.”

“Could you, in future, tell us when you need to save some civilians so we at least know where you are. And, just tell us when you get hurt, so we can help you. I mean, that what the team is for. You are a part of this team and we can’t work together to the best of our abilities if you still do the whole lone wolf thing, okay?” 

Tony nodded in agreement, he was just so tired and fading fast and wanted Steve to leave. It was nice to know he was upgraded from just a consultant, something he had wanted since the Avengers had formed. Steve got up and started for the door, he asked if Tony wanted anything. A murmured request for food came from the bed.

“Okay, I’ll bring you some food. I’ll wake you up when its ready.”

Tony drifted off, sleeping better that he had in a long time. He hadn’t realised how much the last few days had weighed him down.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm doing a project on fanfiction, what it is etc and my practical is writing some short pieces of fanfiction.
> 
> If you want to, could you leave a comment that I could include in my project.
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> I have no knowledge of Doom or doombots other than what I have read in fic, so apologies for inaccuracies. Feel free to correct me!


End file.
